out-of-pocket surgery

Can anybody out there help me?  I have a great job and fairly good insurance, except for the fact that my employer has an exclusion to the policy that weight loss surgery is NOT covered no matter what my health implications are.  Is that stupid or what?  I guess they would rather pay for open heart surgery or such garbage instead of trying to keep me healthy.  You'd think they would get it!!  Must not be any morbidly obese people on the board of directors or whatever!!  Anyway, does anybody know of any affordable private health insurance that would pay for bypass surgery or any way for me to do it out of pocket?  I'm desperate at 340+ pounds and a BMI of over 50.  Thanks in advance for any advice, guys!!

If you owned a home, you could probably take out a second mortage.  Also, some doctors have a service were the patient can take out a loan through their office, and pay it back in installments.

I did think of the second mortage, cause we do own a home, but I didn't know there were offices that would do the payments thing.  I'll research that first.  Thanks for the info!!

Dont know about other private insurance, but I do have BCBS of GA individual policy, and my insurance would not cover my RNY.  Even if you found one, it could probably have an exclusion time before it would cover the surgery. Norma

Check out the top of the Alabama Borad! I used that Dr. and he is really good. He is also a gastric patient himself and with me being a self-pay it was cheepier than here in Atalnta. I really feel so much better and I would use him again. I wish you the best! Hug's

I had a similar situation with insurance.  I live in the Chattanooga, Tennesses area and I found a website called AffordableBariatrics.com.  I flew to Columbia-Bogota, South America and had the surgery and I could not be happier.  The entire trip cost $12,000 and that included my round trip air fare, hotel, site seeing trips (2 ) of those, an English speaking guide, and two nurses for 24 hour care during my recovery.   This cost also included all the pre-op testing, and the cost for the Dr(s). fee, the Hospital and it covered an insurance policy for any complications that may have come up after surgery.  Fortunately, that did not happen.  I had a wonderful experience and was gone from home approx. one week.  I  flew out of Atlanta on Tuesday and returned home on the following Wednesday.  My surgery was on March 15th, 2007 and it has been exactly 3 months and I have lost 44 lbs.  I feel terrific and have more energy than I have had in years, my blood pressure is like a teenager's and I'm having my full labs done on the 20th of June to check cholesteral, tri-glycerides, sugar, etc....... my email address is [email protected] if you would like to hear any additional information about this.  Affordable Bariatrics has a toll free 800 number that you may call and actually speak with a Dr.   Good Luck. 

HI!~  I'm in Acworth too!!  I just ended up doing a self-pay for Lapband.  It was $16,300.00 out the door.  I used an existing line of credit and am paying it back as much as I can each month.

hey, cool..a fellow acworth-ian LOL.  How is the Lap-Band doing for you?  I've just read a little bit about it.  I really think I'd like the bypass because I have so much to lose, even though I know it's riskier.  Did you like Dr. Duncan and his staff?  I could probably ask a million questions.  I've looked into a lot of different docs, but once I got to the brick wall they call Aetna, I stopped and started looking for ways around it.  Even though of doing a second mortgage on our house, but that might be too risky.  One lady I talked to on line said some of the docs will do payment plans, but so far I haven't found one.  When was your surgery and how is it going? 

The payment plans, are with companies..Such as Capiol one and several others that are affliated withthe different surgeons..Check out the websites of the doctors you are interested in, and they usually tell you about the financing....Hope this helps.. Peace Trisha

For years I had thought I could lose all this weight on my own and lost a lot...but never got all the way there.  In fact 215 was as low as I've been in 15 years or so.   RNY was all I ever considered but was a chicken squat!  I didn't like the whole "cut and paste" idea.  I was afraid of dying on the table more than eating myself to death!  How silly is that??!!  Never considered the lap-band because it is slower and I wanted all of this weight off tomorrow!!  :} When The lapband started getting more press in tha last year I considered it for the first time because it seemed less invasive and it is reversible.  But let me tell you this....unless I had to reverse it for emergency reasons, I would not go thru all of that again! Even laproscopic out-patient surgery is difficult!!  :}  My friend had found a Dr. that did it for $12K.  I had surgery scheduled with him but didn't get the warm fuzzies so after all of my tests and evals were done I called Dr. Duncan's office and was slipped right in as a self-pay.  His office is great and I really like his staff. Though he was slightly more expensive, the insurance policy that came with it was worth it to me (and my imagination of the tragic things that would happen!!)  :) none have so far! Everything went well and I am 5 weeks post-op today.  Just had my first fill.  I have lost 27 lbs. and can feel a big diffrence in that.  The key to being a canidate for lapband is your lack of desire for sweets.  I am a salty/crunchy person.  the LB tolerates ANYTHING you can eat as long as you can get it chewed up and thru the hole. You can actually drink milkshakes 24/7 and GAIN weight and never lose any! You can eat sugar, unlike RNY. Sooooooo...if you eat sweets you don't have the adverse dumping reactions !  I have to get a Triscuit chewed up and all the way down to eat it.  (I haven't tried it yet but it sounds like it would take a lot of chewing!!)  Getting food "stuck" at the hole is our cross to bare! It worked well for me, big chicken that I am!, and they recommend you use it as a "tool" aong with diet and exercise.  It was also less expensive and being a selfpay, that was important to me.  I think the RNY's are about $8 - 10K more.  You will get LOTS of info on this message board.  Be sure to read all forums including RNY and Lap-band.  Dr. Duncan's office requires attending a no obligation info seminar (they have one tomorrow morning!)  http://www.peachtreebariatrics.com/  This will answer a lot of questions about both procedures.  Both of the surgeons I had seen had ME make the decision to which way I wanted to go.  In fact, they give you the facts and didn't even try to talk me into one, or either.  In fact the first office sounded surprised when I said  "ok, where do I sign up?" !!  Good luck!!  :D